Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Books and reading
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“There was an Indian edition of most of my books, but it didn't make much of a splash.”
Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (born 1940) first seen 2500 BC wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the impact of her books in India. But her publication of The Hindus: An Alternative History, a sweeping history of Hinduism from its origins in 2500 B.C. to the present, though a success, it has been controversial (t…
“Considering how few, and how simple the Principles are, upon which the whole Art of PERSPECTIVE depends, and withal how useful, nay how absolutely necessary this Art is to all forts of Designing; I have often wonder'd, that it has still been left in so low a degree of Perfection, as it is found to be, in the Books that have been hitherto wrote upon it.”
Brook Taylor (1685–1732) said by 1732 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They recite their sacred books, although the fact informs me that these are a fiction from first to last. O Reason, thou (alone) speakest the truth. Then perish the fools who forged the (religious) traditions or interpreted them!”
Al-Ma'arri (973–1057) said by 1057 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“18 Proposition. The 24. Elders, are the 24 books of the old Testament, and (metonymicè) all the true professors thereof.”
John Napier (1550–1617) said by 1617 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She thought of the library, so shining white and new; the rows and rows of unread books; the bliss of unhurried sojourns there and of going out to a restaurant, alone, to eat.”
Maud Hart Lovelace (1892–1980) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown (1943)
“As for their healers and their worship of gold books of old lore, there had been tribal stories of this, too, all nonsense, as anything chattered by the ill-informed must be.”
Tanith Lee (1947–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A charger's saddle is an exalted throne, the best companions are books alone.”
Al-Mutanabbi (915–965) said by 965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Varun Gandhi is a nice chap, hardworking, intelligent, studies a lot, writes books, and he has won the Lok Sabha election three times. The party should use him. You have to get out of this notion that the BJP is owned by Modi and Amit Shah.”
Subramanian Swamy (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books. For to you Kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the flicking of a finger...”
Gordon R. Dickson (1923–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...Wise men write many books, in words too hard to understand. But this, the purpose of our lives, the end of all our struggle, is beyond all human wisdom.”
Alan Paton (1903–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She looked up at the towering wisdom and felt a sudden love for it—as if these books were family.”
Karl Schroeder (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If there's four Vietcong in a village with knives and punji sticks, we'll bring in a B-52. And I think, sometimes we need to learn to fight smarter instead of to fight richer. And this is what I mean, you know, education, "oh, education's expensive;" no it's not, books are cheap, (the) internet's cheap, we can fight smarter, we can learn. So, that's where resource-to-kill-ratio comes from.”
Max Brooks (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My grandfather always says that's what books are for," Ashoke said, using the opportunity to open the volume in his hands. “To travel without moving an inch.”
Jhumpa Lahiri (born 1967) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Namesake, (2003) p. 16.
“Books come to stand for various episodes in our lives, for certain idealisms, follies of belief, moments of love. Along the way they accumulate our marks, our stains, our innocent abuses—they come to wear our experience of them on their covers and bindings like wrinkles on our skin.”
Jhumpa Lahiri (born 1967) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Clothing of Books (2016)
“Here then is a meritorious role that Malhotra has increasingly played since he started his series of books: getting Hindus up from their cosy unconcern and into reality. In particular, he has taught them to scan the forces in the field and take an objective look at the hostile agents approaching Hindu society with flattering smiles and on idealistic-sounding pretexts.”
Rajiv Malhotra (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We assert that the N.C E.R.T. books have met their fate because of the studied bias and fantastic theories and interpretations of writers like Habib and his friends, and their communal approach in deliberately glossing over the misdeeds of one section of medieval Indian society and repeatedly hammering on the failings of the other.....”
K. S. Lal (1920–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The evidence of the Avestan meters confirms to the hilt the conclusions compelled by the evidence of the Avestan names: namely, (...) that the Early and Middle Books of the Rigveda precede the period of composition of the Avesta”. (Talageri 2009:80)”
Shrikant Talageri (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The elements I need to write are a place, a desk, a familiar room. I need some of my books there, I need quiet. ... I'm picturing as I'm writing. I'm putting together what I need to have this thing alive.”
Mark Strand (1934–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Interview, Mark Thwaite, 12th August 2005, 'Ready Steady Books for literature'”
Dennis O'Driscoll (1954–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, and the 'X-rays' [X-Ray, 1991, black and white photograph].. .I was just interested in seeing what it looks like inside my head – and the idea that they could just examine the inside of my head like a globe. And then I photographed the facades in New York. [at the end of the 19-nineties].. .I did the books at the end of the nineties, and I did the facades shortly after that.”
Isa Genzken (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A lot of things seem to be happening, all at once,” I told Chester. “Enemy action,” he replied. “Huh?” “That’s what you told me once. An old Army motto you found when you were doing those war books. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. This is the third time.”
Michael Kurland (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't really care what people think of me. Whatever anyone may say, I've helped the whole art world, just as Picasso and Dalí have. I've made people aware of painting, which makes them buy more, just like they go buy more records and books once they're exposed.”
Walter Keane (1915–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“most of my tourism is done through books.”
Edwidge Danticat (born 1969) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dawn After the Tempests" (Nov. 6, 2017)
“Watch for slanted passages in text books. Socialist authors have invaded the textbook field. So have some with even more radical views.”
W. Cleon Skousen (1913–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Internally.., the mathematics... at any given time, it's a vast amount of information.., you have to organize it... in such a way that it can be packaged and passed on... [A] lot of facts in a lot of books aren't much help. ...You organize it by unification. You bring together many different parts ...into smaller, simpler packages which can ...be learned.”
Michael Atiyah (1929–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am still making my living reciting my verses for crowds who refuse to buy my books. I must do this, as all American rhymers must, however sick I may be of the sound of my own voice.”
Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Be Godzilla. Don't do anything else. Write books about playing Godzilla, talk to reporters about playing Godzilla, but don't do anything else. Just be Godzilla.”
Kenpachiro Satsuma (1947–2023) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by David Milner, "Kenpachiro Satsuma Interview III", Kaiju Conversations (December 1995)
“Some young men think they can learn how to be successful in politics from books, and they cram their heads with all sorts of college rot. They couldn’t make a bigger mistake. p. 7”
George Washington Plunkitt (1842–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The trouble is that the party’s been chasin’ after theories and stayin’ up nights readin’ books instead of studyin’ human nature and actin’ accordin’, as I've advised in tellin’ how to hold your district. p. 88”
George Washington Plunkitt (1842–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am a writer. A fiction writer who also writes nonfiction on behalf of social and environmental causes or journals about expeditions to wild places. I have written more books of nonfiction because my fiction is an exploratory process — not laborious, merely long and slow and getting slower.”
Peter Matthiessen (1927–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[A]nybody who has served in combat in any way understands that words are weapons. And I'm in a war. The war hasn't stopped. I've always used the books as a blunt instrument.”
Andrew Vachss (1942–2021) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dan Webster interview, originally published June 19, 2005, by the Spokesman Review,
“The idea that a child living deep in poverty whose parents don’t have enough money for food or heating, books or basic things like school trips can ever have the same opportunities for development as a more fortunate child is patently absurd. But because it leads to some difficult choices many politicians choose to ignore it, essentially promising to make you an omelette without breaking any eggs.”
Jo Cox (1974–2016) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jo Cox: Opportunity must knock in a fairer society (24 September 2014)
“I have more than 70 books published based on the articles I have written and the sermons I have given over the past 40 years. In these, there is not the slightest statement that allows the idea of a coup, on the contrary, universal human values that form the basis of democracy are addressed.”
Fethullah Gülen (1941–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Intellectual humility and the keen sense of our ignorance are the necessary starting points for genuine philosophical development; therefore, books—even as they transmit brilliant philosophical insights—undercut philosophy at its root.”
Arthur Melzer (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Looking back, I can now see that Hood is part of a small but interesting body of lesbian novels of loss and bereavement (by people like Sarah Schulman, Marion Douglas, Sarah Von Arsdale, Carol Anshaw) written in the 1990s. We were catching up with the boys, perhaps; gay men really took the lead in writing honest and beautiful books about mourning.”
Emma Donoghue (born 1969) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: interview in Irish women writers speak out by Caitriona Moloney & Helen Thompson (2003)
“I found myself obliged, through perhaps unique circumstances, to devote myself to my mathematical research, almost without help, advice or even books... Endlessly occupied by a thousand different matters and constrained my state duties, it is the work of an engineer that I herewith present and not the fruit of the meditations of a savant.”
Charles Dupin (1784–1873) first seen 1784 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Charles Dupin (1808) in: Hacette (1813; 86-87); as cited in Margaret Bradley, Charles Dupin (1784-1873) and His Influence on France, Cambria Press. p. 69
“...It’s not a matter of speaking down to people or speaking as if to a five-year-old. It’s a matter of speaking to others intelligently with dignity and respect, whether in books, articles, films, or exhibits.”
Peter Galison (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was one of those hot days and it got to be about a hundred degrees, and old Mike just got fed up and threw his books in the corner, and said, 'See ya later, Doc, I'm going to war.' Next thing we heard, he was in Italy with the 3rd Division, where he later was awarded the Medal of Honor and received a battlefield promotion.”
George S. Patton IV (1923–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[...]books. I would scorn the pointless, haughty posturing, scorn its abstracted way of living. There I go again—pondering the purposelessness of my day-to-day life, wishing I had more ambition, and lamenting all the contradictions in myself—when I know it's just sentimental nonsense. All I'm doing is indulging myself, trying to console myself.”
Osamu Dazai (1909–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The slightest formal mistake was punishable with tremendous penalties. A fine of millions of marks was imposed for a single bookkeeping error. Obviously, the [Nazi] examination of the books was simply a pretext for partial expropriation of the private capitalist with a view to complete expropriation and seizure of the desired property later.”
Günter Reimann (1904–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Marriage.-The scope and plan of this work will allow of but the briefest possible consideration of this subject upon which volumes have been written, much to no purpose other than the multiplication of books.”
John Harvey Kellogg (1852–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Says Hon. C. L. Merriam, as quoted by Dr. Lewis: “We find that the dealers in obscene literature have organized circulating libraries, which are under the charge of the most vicious boys in the schools, boys chosen and paid by the venders, and who circulate among the students, at ten cents a volume, any of the one hundred and forty-four obscene books theretofore published in New York City.”
John Harvey Kellogg (1852–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I give all my printed books to Samuel Peach, son of Samuel Peach, in my Will named, and desire that this may be a codicil to my last Will and Testament, and taken as part thereof, as witness my hand, this third day of December. in the year of our Lord 1761.”
James Bradley (1693–1762) said by 1762 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wanted not merely to get up my classics, but to penetrate to the secrets and mysteries which I vaguely understood to be somehow wrapt up in books, though they had not, as yet, been revealed to me. I was disconcerted to find that none of my new acquaintance had any share of this yearning curiosity.”
Mark Pattison (1813–1884) said by 1884 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have no reason to suppose that Lenin gained his ideas from my books; but if that were true, I should be not a little proud of having contribute to the intellectual development of a man who seems to me to be at once the greatest theoretician of socialism since Marx and a statesman whose genius recalls that of Peter the Great.”
Georges Sorel (1847–1922) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: For Lenin,” Soviet Russia, Official Organ of The Russian Soviet Government Bureau, Vol. II, New York: NY, January-June 1920 (April 10, 1920), p. 356
“The popes ... noted that when they led the little sheep to books, their junk market did not prosper and people wanted to know what is godly or ungodly, right or wrong.”
Andreas Karlstadt (1486–1541) said by 1541 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is ample evidence of foreign personages and tribes in the Vedic period. Kuiper lists some twenty-six names of Vedic individuals who have non-Indo-Aryan names, with which Mayrhofer concurs. Witzel points out that twenty-two out of fifty Rgvedic tribal names are not Indo-Aryan, with a majority of them occurring in later books.”
Edwin Bryant (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Radisha kicked over a pile of books. “I’ve never felt so powerless. I don’t like the feeling.” Smoke shrugged. “Welcome to the world where the rest of us live.”
“A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. He can live without hope, without friends, without books, even without music, as long as he can listen to his own thoughts and to the singing of a bird outside his window and to the far-away voice of the sea.”
Axel Munthe (1857–1949) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Preface, 1928
“Looking over such famous old books as Montmort's 'Analyse des jeux de hasard' or Moivre's 'Doctrine of Chances' one regrets that so much excellent mathematics should have been wasted on games most of which are wholly obsolete. Coriolus in his '[Théorie Mathématique des Effets du] Jeu de billard' (1835) fared better, for the game is still very much alive and its dynamical terrors unsubdued.”
Carl Barus (1856–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source